Application servers are entities in system and network environments in which various applications or services can execute or operate. In particular, application servers are dedicated to the efficient execution of processes, procedures, routines, scripts, and software code for supporting the functionalities of applications and services. Software developers can access application servers via various application programming interfaces (APIs).
The Java Platform, Enterprise Edition, Java EE, or J2EE are widely used platforms for server programming in the Java programming language. A J2EE container is a runtime entity that provides services to specialized Java components. Services provided by a container typically include life cycle management, security, deployment, and component-specific services. Containers are used in a wide variety of Java components, such as Enterprise Javabeans (EJB), Web pages, Java Server Pages (JSP), servlets, applets, and application clients.
During operation of a Java EE application server, various services or applications associated with the services may need to be configured by a system administrator or other entity. The configuration can include attributes or properties that, themselves, need to be configured by the system administrator. However, some of the attributes or properties can be sensitive in nature and may need to be securely protected. Therefore, it may be desirable to provide systems and methods for securing attributes. In particular, it may be desirable to provide systems and methods for managing access to attributes associated with the operation of an application server.